In 10 years on top of the District 6-AAA field, the Lewistown Lady Panthers may be best known for their guard play and their ability to put a team away with high-scoring spurts.
For Mountain Athletic Conference coaches who have been around the block, the list of Panther guards that have burnt them is long and distinguished, and for Tyrone coach Jim Swaney, the number of times his team has been knocked out by a Lady Panther run is long and forgettable.
The Lady Panthers don’t have the same kind of up-tempo, smooth-shooting guards they once did, but their ability to string together points quickly is just the same, and it was on display in the second quarter of last night’s 60-44 win over Tyrone at the Tyrone Area High School gymnasium.
Lewistown started the quarter with a 9-2 run, and ended it by scoring six in a row, breaking open what had been a six-point game at the end of the first quarter. The Lady Panthers led 33-16 at halftime, and withstood a gritty Tyrone comeback attempt in the fourth quarter to improve to 5-0 on the season (2-0 MAC).
Only this time, it wasn’t Lewistown’s guards that broke Tyrone with timely three-pointers or baskets in transition. This time, it was the inside power game of Jenny Cunningham and Jenna Craig that ultimately did in the Lady Eagles.
Cunningham scored a game-high 24 points, including 10 in the second quarter, and Craig added 15.
“We knew they were going to pound it inside,” said Swaney. “I told our kids at the end of the game, it’s a 16-point game, but if we make some open looks in the first half, that game’s tighter than that.”
Indeed, Tyrone shot itself out of opportunities at times, particularly in the second quarter, when, with a 21-8 lead, the Lady Panthers switched from man defense to a 2-3 zone. Tyrone made just one three-point field goal and again shot below 40 percent from the field, repeating a poor shooting performance that tripped it up at Bellefonte last week.
“This is three out of four games we’ve played that we haven’t shot the ball well,” Swaney said. “But we’re going to show up (for practice) and we’re going to shoot and shoot, and hopefully we’ll shoot the ball a little better than what we have.”
At times last night, even the finest shooting performance would have only been a stop-gap because the kinds of shots Lewistown was getting were by far superior to those Tyrone saw. Cunningham muscled her way inside for prime post-up position in the Lady Panthers’ offensive sets, as did Craig.
The smaller Lady Eagles were forced to front both players on the blocks, leaving them susceptible to lob entry passes, and more often than not weak side help was late when the ball entered the paint.
That took its toll, especially in the second quarter, when the duo combined for 14 of their team’s 19 points.
In the second half, much of the damage inside was done by Lewistown’s guards, who made a concerted effort to crash the boards and get inside for offensive put backs.
“I was a little disappointed with our post defense in the first half,” Swaney said. “We did a better job in the second half, but then their guards hurt us because we didn’t rotate down and box them out.”
Hilary McNelis led Tyrone with 14 points, her fourth consecutive double-figure game this season. Emily Lloyd scored a career-high 10, eight of which came in the second half.
Now 2-2 (0-2 MAC), Tyrone travels to Hollidaysburg Thursday to begin the Golden Tiger Holiday Classic basketball tournament. The Lady Eagles draw unbeaten Bishop McCort in the first round.
“They will give us a completely different look (than Lewistown)” Swaney said. “They will want to make it a 94-foot game and show us three or four different presses … and they play a pretty good half-court man-to-man.
“There’s no question we’ll play hard. We just have to shoot the ball better.”
GAME NOTES: Lewistown’s guards combined for just 21 points, the Lady Panthers have scored at least 30 in every game this season….Lewistown’s 60-point team output was a season-low.
JUNIOR VARSITY
Megan Turiano scored six points to lead Tyrone, but it wasn’t enough as the Lady Panthers defeated the Lady Eagles 46-19 in the junior varsity game.
VARSITY
Lewistown 60 Tyrone 44
LEWISTOWN – Craig 7 1-3 15; Searer, 2 2-6 6; Stauffer 0 0-0 0; Krepps 1 1-2 3; Spickler 1 0-0 2; Kodish 0 0-0 0; Rhoades 0 2-2 2; Griffith 3 2-2 8; Cunningham 10 4-11 24. TOTALS: 24 12-26 60.
TYRONE – McKenna 2 1-2 5; Ingle 1 0-0 2; Lloyd 5 0-0 10; Roth 2 0-0 4; Hoover 1 1-2 3; McNelis 7 0-0 14; Bradford 0 2-2 2; Bryan 1 0-0 3; Long 0 1-2 1. TOTALS: 19 5-8 44.
Score by Quarters
LEWISTOWN 14 19 13 14 – 60
TYRONE 8 8 10 18 – 44
3-POINT GOALS: Tyrone 1 (Bryan 1)
JUNIOR VARSITY
Lewistown 46 Tyrone 19
LEWISTOWN – King 0 0-0 0; Wilson 4 0-0 10; Smith 3 0-0 6; Wray 0 0-0 0; Pecht 2 0-0 4; Spickler 3 0-0 6; Zimmerman 2 0-0 4; Casner 6 0-0 12; Bobb 2 0-0 4. TOTALS: 22 0-0 46
TYRONE – Bryan 1 0-0 2; Tepsic 1 0-0 2; Walker 1 0-0 2; Russell 0 0-0 0; Turiano 3 0-0 6; Corle 0 3-5 3; Glace 0 2-2 2; Christine 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 7 5-7 19
Score by Quarters
LEWISTOWN 14 10 12 10 – 46
TYRONE 4 4 7 4 – 19
3-POINT GOALS: Lewistown 2 (Wilson 2)
